Icarians

The Icarians were a French utopian movement, founded by Étienne Cabet, who led his followers to America where they established some short lived egalitarian communes.

European Roots

Étienne Cabet was born in France in 1788. He attended law school, practiced politics and journalism and was also a political organizer for a secret revolutionary group called the Carbonari. He was sentenced to two years in prison after publishing an article about the French Revolution. Instead of going to prison, he fled to London and returned to France in 1839. Once back in France, he published a four volume history about the French Revolution. After success with his first publication, he wrote Voyage En Icarie, (The Voyage to Icaria), a narrative blueprint of a communal Utopia. Like most utopian societies of the time, the Icarians had a structure that was often compared to Marxism in its developing stages. Their society believed that by eliminating the social classes, poverty would be eliminated and everyone could then contribute to the whole and obtain a peaceful existence. The end result would be equality for all.

On April 16, 1848, Etienne Cabet rode through the streets of Paris on a white stallion looking for followers for his perfect society. Cabet targeted members of the working middle class, also referred to as the bourgeois. He needed people who had handiness in manufacturing, weaving, tailoring as well as any other useful skills that could ensure that their new society in America would be as self-sufficient as possible. This also included women who could keep house and care for the sick. Silk making was of one of the many trades that Cabet was looking to incorporate. These artisans came from Lyon.

To advertise this society, he published articles in his newsletter called "Le Populaire". This publication was unique because three-quarters of its shareholders were the artisans that followed Cabet's ideas. "Le Populaire" had a circulation of 4,500, which outsold the other radical papers of the era. It was written in simple language that was attractive to the French middle class.

Cabet also realized he would also need farmers in his American Icaria, so he wrote a brochure called "Les Village" to appeal to rural peasants.

Political Context

For the Icarians, the remedy for any problem would be a better social and political organization. The society was free, meaning that it imposed itself upon no one. Anyone could join as long as they adopted its principles entirely. The political structure consisted on one president who was elected annually, and four officers each in charge of finance, farming, industry and education. Prospective members of the community were admitted by a majority vote of adult males. This was after the prospective member had lived in the society for four months and pledged $80. Members were required to forfeit all of their property.

Cabet was strongly influenced by events of the July Revolution of 1830, in which a democratic uprising replaced the last Bourbon king with an Orleanist monarch who granted a new constitution respecting civil rights. These rights were diminished over time, (Victor Hugo's Les Misérables describes the events of 1832) and Cabet wrote a utopian work about an ideal society. When the Revolution of 1848 established the French Second Republic, it became clear to Cabet that his utopian ideals could not be implemented with all the baggage of French history, so he struck out for America to start a new society from a completely blank slate.
Karl Marx's vision of a perfect worker's utopia was strongly influenced by both Cabet's idealism and by the proof of it as a working reality in Illinois and Iowa.

American Settlement

Nauvoo, Illinois

In 1849, fifteen thousand followers of Cabet rallied at the port of Le Havre, France to set sail for the United States. They landed at New Orleans and settled near Fort Worth, Texas. They had originally decided on Texas because of the abundant land, freedom from police surveillance and separation of church and state. However, after hearing horror stories of miserable Texas summers, the Icarians decided to head north to Nauvoo, Illinois, a small town on the Mississippi River, that had recently been vacated by the Mormons. Nauvoo became the first permanent Icarian Community in the early 1850s. Later that same decade, political disagreements divided the Icarians. Cabet himself and some followers went to St. Louis where he died in 1856.

Corning, Iowa

After Cabet’s death, there was another schism that forced part of the community to move to Corning, Iowa. The settlers arrived with nothing but their skills along with $20,000 of debt. Their land was that of 4,000 acres where they first found shelter in mud hovels and then in crudely built log cabins. The colony at Corning was granted a charter of incorporation by the state of Iowa in 1860. In the 1870s, the Icarian colony at Corning had another split. The "vieux icariens" were against allowing women the right to vote, but the "jeunes icariens" were in favor. By a vote of 31-17, the entire community voted against the franchise for women. After that, the "jeunes icariens" moved to a new site three miles east of Corning. The "vieux icariens" community was no longer viable and was forced to disband due to bankruptcy in 1878. The new community established a new constitution in 1879.cite web
url=http://www.archive.org/stream/icariachapterinh00shaw/icariachapterinh00shaw_djvu.txt
title=Icaria, Chapter in the History of Communism
author= ALBERT SHAW, Ph. D.
publisher=G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
pages = 124ff
date=1884
accessdate=2008-09-16]

In 1898, this last community of Icarians disbanded voluntarily; the members chose to integrate into the surrounding towns. A historical exhibit about the Icarians can be found in the lobby of the Adams County hall in Corning, and a living history site is being rebuilt on the location of the site where the Icarians lived until 1898.

California

A new colony of Icaria was established in 1881 just south of Cloverdale, California, but it also disbanded in 1886. Today there is a historical marker just south of town marking where their schoolhouse was. A related group in Iowa continued to stay together, but they too finally disbanded in 1898.

Community Structure

Equality

The Icarians (in German, "Ikarier") lived in communal dwellings of dormitories that shared central living and dining areas. All families lived in two equal rooms in an apartment building and had the same kind of furniture. Children were raised in a communal creche, not just by their own parents. Tasks were divided among the group; one might be a seamstress and never need to cook.

Housing

When the Icarians first arrived at Nauvoo on March 15, 1849, they purchased a number of buildings, grounds, houses, cattle and the like. The burned-out Mormon Temple had an enclosed area of four acres which the Icarians intended to use as an academy or school.

After all purchases and repairs were done, the Nauvoo Icarian village consisted of a dwelling of individual apartments, two schools (one for little girls and the other for little boys), two infirmaries, a pharmacy, a large community kitchen with dining hall, a bakery, a butchery and a room for laundry facilities. Soon after a steam-powered flour mill, a distillery, pigsty and sawmill were added. A local coal mine was worked for fuel.

The housing situations in Iowa and California were not anywhere near as organized as in Illinois. What little information that is available painted a picture of oppression and despair.

Work

All work was divided by gender. Men worked as tailors, masons, wheelwrights, shoemakers, mechanics, blacksmiths, carpenters, tanners, and butchers. Women worked as cooks, seamstresses, washerwomen and ironers.To earn money, the Icarians established commerce with the outside world by a small store out side of St. Louis. Here they sold their handmade shoes, boots and dresses, and also sold items made by the mills and distillery.

Religion

The Icarians believed in a higher power and had a ten-section principle that briefly stated what they thought was needed in a perfect society.

The religion of choice should have an understanding of the following:
*Evil, Misfortune
*Intelligence
*Causes of Evil
*God and Perfection
*Destiny of Humanity, Happiness
*Sociability
*Perfectibility
*The Remedy
*God, Father of the Human Race

At eighteen years of age, the Icarians were instructed on world religions. Like other American Utopias of that era, the supporters believed in a higher power but didn’t have any written doctrine as to how to worship. It was up to the individual to decide what religion to follow. Marriage in the community was highly encouraged, almost insisted upon. Divorce was allowed, however members were encouraged to remarry as soon as possible.

Culture

Culture in Icaria was the second highest priority, second only to education. The community held several concerts and theatrical productions for the entertainment of its members. There was a library of over 4,000 books, the biggest in Illinois at the time. The community also distributed a biweekly newspaper titled "Colonie Icarienne".

exual equality

Men and women were given equal participation opportunities in weekly community assemblies, voting on admissions, constitutional changes, and the election of the officer in charge of clothing and lodging.

ummary

From start to finish, the entire Icarian movement lasted only forty-nine years. Like all utopias of this era, the Icarians met their demise from within their own community. Poor planning and poor financial management along with personal disputes seem to be at the root of the disbandment. Although the disagreements were never mentioned in complete detail, it was obvious that debt was their biggest downfall.

Further Reading

* "America's Communal Utopias", by Donald E. Pitzer, 1997, The University of North Carolina Press ISBN 0807846090
* "An Icarian communist in Nauvoo":commentary, by Emile Vallet. With an introduction and notes by H. Roger Grant, 1917 ISBN 0912226064
* "Socialism in America", Edited by Albert Fried, 1970, Boston Public Library.
* "Dream Worlds?", by Pamela Pilbeam, 2000, The Historical Journal, Vol 43
* "Communism and the Working Class before Marx", 1971, The American Historical Review Vol. 76
*

External links

* [http://main.cambre.biz/nihs/index.html National Icarian Heritage Society]
* [http://www.wiu.edu/library/units/archives/collections/icarian/index.sphp Baxter-Snyder Center for Icarian Studies]
* [http://www.cloverdalehistoricalsociety.org/CHS_new/icarians/index.htm] "Cloverdale Historical Society"

References